The 1894 Boulder Flood

According to Weather Underground, the peak flow of the 1894 flood was four times larger than the 2013 flood. Comment below was made right at the peak on Sept. 13.

So far it seems the flow at 14th St on Boulder Creek downtown has just been 3,100 cfs whereas the 1894 event was four times that.

Christopher C. Burt, Weather Historian

ScreenHunter_796 Sep. 21 08.31

May 29 to June 2, 1894

This flood, caused by a downpour, washed away much of the city of Boulder’s downtown district. Mountain rainfall, combined with snowmelt runoff,   produced the greatest flood known in Boulder County and inundated the valley. Every bridge   in Boulder Canyon was swept away destroying the highway and railroads as far up the canyon as Fourmile Canyon Creek. Buildings were destroyed at Crisman, Sunset, and Copper creeks. The town was isolated from other Colorado communities for five days.

boulderoem.com/files/Boulder_MHMP_Draft_for_Social_Media.pdf

h/t to Colorado Wellington

About Tony Heller

Just having fun
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3 Responses to The 1894 Boulder Flood

  1. Rosco says:

    Isn’t it interesting that South East Queensland Australia had a massive flood event in 1893 followed by Colorado in 1894.

    The first 6 months of 2012 here were really wet – more rain than 2011 the Brisbane flood – followed by Colorado in 2013.

    How did you guys go after the 1974 Floods in Brisbane which was larger than 2011 but smaller than 1893 ?

    Was there a flood summer in 1975 ?

  2. Pathway says:

    1976 Big Thompson flood.

  3. Pathway says:

    12,000 cfs is what flows down the Colorado River at Grand Junction CO when it approaches flood stage. That amount coming down Boulder Creek would really be catastrophic.

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